Epilogue: The Beginning of The End
Leah is a slave to her senses. She can't help it. It is one of both the perks and the pitfalls that come with her enhanced nature.
On days like this, as the sleek convertible winds through grassy mountains, Leah feels blessed to be able to breathe in the crisp Italian air with its notes of olives and bergamot oranges.
Demetri side eyes her from the driver's seat as she takes in a lung full of air. After a shaky start in Rome, where he practically set up camp outside her hotel room, they have managed to settle into a comfortable silence.
"I told you it would take your breath away," he says after a pause. He doesn't do anything as common as smile though.
She turns to him, an instinctive sneer forming on her face that she only just manages to dampen down and only for the sake of a peaceful journey. His hair is curling round the nape of his neck, elegantly moistened from the heat of the sun.
His skin glistens like crystal rocks. Under the force of the sun, the effect is subtle enough not to startle the few cars who have passed them on their two hour drive up to Volterra.
"Careful, Leah." He says, jovially and with only a hint of Italian inflection. "If you keep staring at me, I might start to think you actually like me."
She could take it as a romantic implication or the beginnings of a seduction but even in the short time they have spent together, Leah has gotten to know Demetri well enough to do either. Everything he says is practised and measured. Every word he utters is considered and weighted.
He is trying to be her friend, or the illusion of one at least, since she's quite sure Demetri doesn't do anything as human as friendship or feelings.
"I think it's creepy how all you vamps glitter like fucking disco balls in the sun. It makes no sense," she says, trying to emulate his stoic delivery of every single thing he says.
It doesn't quite work. Leah is an emotional creature, even when she doesn't want to be. She is too passionate, too primal, too wild.
Sometimes she envies him. Sometimes she envies his whole damn species.
Demetri shrugs as though he might kind of agree with her. "There's a lot about you that makes no sense to me either."
She stares at him for a while; still and stony. She waits for his resolve to break, for the slightest sign that she's managed to chip at his walls. Nothing happens.
So she goes back to watching the hills, speeding past in a green blur and she closes her eyes and opens her mouth slightly until all she can taste is olives and bergamot oranges.
...
Aro embraces her like a long lost friend on the steps of what is supposed to be a castle but looks more like a museum or something.
She tells him as much as she shakes off the hug and he steps back with a half-hearted apologetic smile.
"What were you expecting?" He asks as though he cares, as though anything she says will matter.
Leah looks up at the stone monument; set surprisingly close to a busy town square. "I dunno." She says with a shrug. "Something more white and pointy."
He grins knowingly and places a hand onto her back as he gestures her through the huge ornate archway. A stab of revulsion is swallowed down, along with Leah's pride and the tiniest sliver of disappointment that fairytales never turn out the way you expect them to.
"Wait until you see the inside," he says as he leads her through long, stony hallways that are just as cold and disappointing as the outside. This place is too dark, too much like a vampire's lair. Her sneakers squeak and slide on the marble flooring.
Aro opens a door on the third floor and stands back to let Leah through first. The room is grand and warm with an inviting charm. There are cushion padded chaises and chairs. A huge bed with expensive sheets and pillows. Pictures of wolves and nature scenes decorate the walls, as though this room was made with her in mind.
"A little on the nose," Aro says with a self-deprecating chuckle. "But I thought you would appreciate it."
"Like I'm some whore. Easily satisfied?" She says, anger lost in bewilderment. She expects anger in return or some sign of offence at least. It's not lost on her that she is standing three feet away from what might possibly be the oldest, most powerful man in the world.
Aro smiles gently. "Of course not, my dear. This is not payment for your services. It is a gesture of kindness for a girl who deserves the finest things in life and has not yet received them."
He takes her hands, his cold, vampiric touch the only thing on earth that can send a physical chill through her. With one hand, he gestures to the opulent surrounding. "You are special, Leah. This is your entitlement. This is the best." and then he stoops a little to look her in the eye. "Take it."
Her gaze catches Demetri's, who is standing in the doorway with his usual blankness and lack of regard as he watches this parody unfold in front of him.
She pulls her hand out of Aro's, swallowing hard to clear her throat. "You bought me here to discuss terms?" she says, as though the decision hasn't already been made. As though her presence here isn't already an answer.
Aro waves her question away and the easy dismissal annoys her. "And we shall. Later. In great depth," he says with a smile. "And if after that you wish to leave, then you are free to do so without any repercussion. You have The Volturi's word on that."
"What do you want?" she asks, trying to wrangle back at least the illusion of control. She can be real stupid sometimes but standing here in bloody waters and surrounded by sharks, she knows this takes the cake.
Aro sighs, still pleasant and engaging. "So jaded, my dear. So cautious. I am offering you everything you never had. Beautiful surroundings, the means to travel the world, a first class education. The same thing I offer everybody who steps through these doors." He pauses and his eyes rove her face. "But you are not everybody, are you my little dove?"
He settles into one of the chairs and folds his palms on his lap, like a man who knows better than to tower over a cornered beast. "So I offer you something that I know you will appreciate. Respect. Consideration. A duty that you are allowed to fulfil. The means to fight for the things that matter to you. What you make of that, who you chose to care about...that is entirely up to you. All I ask in return for what I offer you is your loyalty; to me, to The Volturi. Give me the chance to make you great, Leah as you were always meant to be and in return I will give you the world."
Leah can pinpoint the exact moment when Aro realises that he has won. His expression shifts into satisfied grin and his eyes light up with unrestrained fulfilment.
Leah takes one last look around the room and thinks about where she was only one month ago. Alone, hungry and so full of bitterness. No cosy beds or roaring fireplaces. Nobody wanting to give her the time of day, never mind the world. She thinks about Wu and the rest of the monks; what they would say and the imagined conversation angers her because where has playing by the rules ever gotten her? Leeches are still killing people in Forks, still killing people in Shanghai.
She looks back at Aro and his self-congratulation doesn't irk her as much because, as her eyes land on a painting of an ass naked woman standing under the moon, she thinks she might have just won too.
"To seek greatness is the only righteous vengeance."
~Criss Jami~
Authors Note: There we have it. The last chapter of this story. I have tidied up the presentation of the previous chapters and added title quotes but this one is now officially done. However, I do want to come back to this at some point and flesh it out, even up the chapter lengths, etc. Thanks for sticking with me.